


we used to sleep on the beach

by cibmata



Series: songs in e major about being in love [1]
Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 10:52:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16427975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cibmata/pseuds/cibmata
Summary: It’s been a long four months. Just a domestic tour, just the US. It would have been alright — they both like touring. They both love playing shows, just… not who they’ve been playing them with.And they’ve been planning to quit The Creatures for much, much longer than four months.So yeah, James gets the vacant way Aleks is staring out at broken AC units and pigeon shit. He feels the same way, on a spiritual level or whatever.





	we used to sleep on the beach

**Author's Note:**

> or, the band au no one asked for
> 
> this is... edited but by me, so not edited well 
> 
> i'm still trying to?? grasp their voices so hopefully this is okay! i’m also not.. a fluff writer but sometimes you just Gotta
> 
> you can find me [@cibmata](http://cibmata.tumblr.com) on tumblr!
> 
>  
> 
> [mogwai - kids will be skeletons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8ebGCzGeo)

The idea that they’re never going to tour with The Creatures again doesn’t settle in, exactly, until they’ve made it back to James’ shitty walkup. 

They’re both exhausted, a deep ache that James remembers being… better before. The satisfaction of playing show after show, of a job well done. 

Well. The job is _done_ this time, anyway. 

They don’t bother unpacking. Aleks throws his backpack against a wall, settles his bass down with a little more care against the kitchen counter. James tosses his bag on the couch and pretends not to notice when Aleks hesitates, lays his bass all gentle-like across the floor instead. 

“S’fuckin’ weird in here without Ein,” Aleks mumbles. He’s drumming his fingers on the counter, not facing James. There’s not much of a view out the kitchen window, just the building’s frankly disgusting air shaft, but he seems pretty engrossed in it.

James gets it, kind of. 

It’s been a long four months. Just a domestic tour, just the US. It would have been alright — they both like touring well enough. They both love playing shows, just… not who they’ve been playing them with.

And they’ve been planning to quit The Creatures for much, much longer than four months.

So yeah, James gets the vacant way Aleks is staring out at broken AC units and pigeon shit. He feels the same way, on a spiritual level or whatever.

Eventually he lets out the breath he’d been holding and shuffles across the kitchen, cups Aleks’ hip with one hand. “She’ll be back tomorrow,” he says, rubbing his cheek against Aleks’ hair. “And you’ll be back to being annoyed with her in no time.”

Aleks makes a noncommittal sound and James sort of expects him to maybe pull away, make a joke. Get defensive like he tends to do when he’s tired and sober. 

Instead, he turns. Drops his head to rest against James’ shoulder and James, automatically, slips his arms around Aleks’ waist.

They’re both so much more exhausted than James had ever expected them to be. Like the weight of being in a band that was killing them both hasn’t lifted even a little yet.

They stand there in silence and now it’s James’ turn to stare out into the dim air shaft. Aleks’ hands come up, fingers hooking in the back of James’ t-shirt. 

They stay there long enough that James’ foot starts going a bit numb. And he doesn’t really want to break the moment but, fuck, he’s _tired_ and he knows Aleks is too.

“Y’wanna go to bed?” His lips move against Aleks’ hair as he speaks and he wants to turn his face into it, nuzzle in and sleep with a nose full of the smell of sweat and hotel shampoo. 

Aleks hums. His breath is warm through James’ sweater and James hugs him a little closer, unconsciously, kisses the shell of his ear.

“ _I_ wanna go to bed,” he goes on when Aleks doesn’t respond, and Aleks laughs before he finally pulls away.

“Old,” he says, and then he’s jabbing James in the side just hard enough that he squawks and slaps Aleks’ beanie off of his head. 

“ _Infant_.”

Aleks dissolves into giggles — that’s really the only word for it — and James could keep going. They could keep making jabs, the back and forth banter, what they always do. But he takes a second to just look. To memorize the way Aleks’ eyes crinkle up in the corners when he laughs, the way his too-long hair flops over his forehead and makes him look even younger, even softer.

It does something to his heart. The same thing it’s always done — James knows he’s in love, he’s always known — but in a way that now makes him think things might be manageable even though they don’t have anything even close to a plan for the future.

It’s fucking stupid. A stupid cliche. But they have each other and James thinks that might be enough.

Aleks is smiling crookedly up at him when he makes himself focus again, reaching out with one hand to poke at James right in the centre of his chest.

“If I’m an infant,” he’s saying, “it doesn’t say much for your-,”

James catches him around the wrist. Pulls him in and kisses him and shuts him up in the most effective way he knows how.

Aleks melts. That’s the only way to describe it and James is completely, one-hundred-percent okay with that.

They kiss in the middle of James’ kitchen and it’s not frantic, no desperation here in the quiet of the apartment. Just an easy, soft press of mouths as they help each other out of their jackets in the kitchen, their shirts in the living room. James remembers to stumble out of his shoes out front of his bedroom door and when James breaks away, goes to his knees to unlace Aleks’ sneakers Aleks whines but lets James help him out of them.

They’re kissing again in seconds, anyway.

It’s still light out, early evening sun slatting through his bedroom’s shitty blinds. When Aleks breaks away from James to flop on the bed it sends a flurry of dust particles through bars of light and Aleks himself is lit up for a second, all spread out on James’ bed and… 

And again, James just looks. Just lets himself look for a long, long moment as the dust in the air settles some and Aleks looks back, unembarrassed.

“You falling asleep?” 

James feels himself smile and he makes himself move, makes himself take a few steps forward, then kneels up on the bed. He knows he fits perfectly between Aleks’ legs so that’s where he goes, crawls across messy sheets and plants both hands on either side of Aleks’ head before he bothers responding.

“Naw,” he says. “Just checkin’ you out.”

Aleks’ hands come up, cup the back of his head, and he smiles in this sort of weird way that wrinkles his nose and James wants to kiss him about it. 

So he does, because he can.

They lay there, just kissing, for what feels like a long time. James lowering to his elbows so that they’re pressed together from chest to hip, Aleks’ nails scratching all soft and sweet against his scalp. It _feels_ like a long time but James is sure he could stay like this forever, in the quiet of his bedroom, with the most beautiful boy he’s ever known. 

He pulls back for a second, just to look again. Greedy, hungry for the way Aleks’ eyes slit open just-so as he lifts his head to chase James’ lips. So gratifying. 

James gets a hand between them. Cocks his head like a question and thumbs at Aleks’ bare hip, at the waistband of his underwear until he gets the idea and Aleks gives him a pouty kind of frown. 

“‘m tired,” he mumbles, punctuates himself with a fucking massive yawn directly in James’ face. “In the morning though?”

James bumps his forehead against Aleks’ and then lifts back up onto his hands and knees, mock-pouts right back at him. “You hate fucking in the morning.”

Aleks exhales, sharp and halfheartedly irritated. “I don’t hate _fucking_ in the morning, dick. I hate being _awake_ in the morning.”

James doesn’t point out that these things are a little bit mutually exclusive but he snorts, rolls away before Aleks can headbutt him for laughing. 

Reluctantly he sits himself up, away from Aleks’ warmth, to strip off his socks. It only takes a second, but Aleks starts to grumble and paw at his back until he clambers back into the unmade bed and drags the blanket up over them both, wraps Aleks up in both arms all tight and snug.

They’re both quiet for a long time. Long enough that James thinks maybe Aleks has fallen asleep, and maybe he’s about to doze off too.

And then Aleks blows a little raspberry against his chest, sleepy and sweet and not enough to really tickle but James laughs anyway.

“The Creatures was a stupid name for a band, anyway,” Aleks mumbles, muffled against James’ skin, and James pulls him closer. Kisses his hair. 

“We can do better,” he agrees.

And they will do better, he thinks, burrowing deeper into the warmth of his bed and of Aleks. He knows they will.


End file.
